Volume Ii Part 17 (1/2)

I suppose that the same mythical nature belongs to the b.u.t.terfly (perhaps the black little b.u.t.terfly with red spots), which is called in Sicily the little bird of good news (occidduzzu bona nova), or little pig of St Anthony (purcidduzzu di S. Antoni), and which is believed to bring good luck when it enters a house. It is entreated to come into the house, which is then immediately shut, so that the good luck may not go out. When the insect is in the house, they sing to it:--

”In your mouth, milk and honey; In my house, health and wealth.”[344]

The b.u.t.terfly was in antiquity both a phallical symbol (and therefore Eros held it in his hand) and a funereal one, with promises of resurrection and transformation; the souls of the departed were represented in the forms of b.u.t.terflies carried towards Elysium by a dolphin. The b.u.t.terfly was also often represented upon the seven strings of the lyre, and upon a burning torch. It dies to be born again. The phases of the moon seem to correspond in the sky to the zoological transformations of the b.u.t.terfly.

Other beetles--the green beetle and the c.o.c.kchafer--have also extraordinary virtues in fairy tales. In the fifth story of the third book of the _Pentamerone_, the c.o.c.kchafer (scarafone; in Toscana, it is called also indovirello) can play on the guitar, saves the hero, Nardiello, and makes the princess laugh that had never laughed before.

In the fifty-eighth story of the sixth book of _Afana.s.sieff_, the green beetle cleans the hero who had fallen into the marsh, and makes the princess laugh who had never laughed before (the beetle, which appears in spring, like the phallical cuckoo, releases the sun from the marsh of winter).

FOOTNOTES:

[331] ?aghasa te visham; _?igv._ i. 191, 11.

[332] Communicated to me by Dr Ferraro.--A similar story is still told in Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Ireland, with the variation of the stork as the eagle's rival in flying: when the stork falls down tired out, the wren, which was hidden under one of its wings, comes forth to measure itself with the eagle, and not being tired, is victorious.--In a popular story of Hesse, the wren puts all the animals, guided by the bear, to flight by means of a stratagem.

[333] Atyunnati? prapya nara? pravara? kitako yatha sa vinacyatyasa?deham; Bohtlingk, _Indische Spruche_, 2te Aufl. Spr. 181.

[334] The same superst.i.tion exists in some parts of England, where the children address it thus:--

”Cow-lady, cow-lady, fly away home; Your house is all burnt, and your children are gone.”

The English names for this beetle are ladybird, ladycow, ladybug, and ladyfly (cfr. Webster's English Dictionary). The country-people also call it golden knop or k.n.o.b (Cfr. Trench _On the Study of Words_).

[335]

”Boszia Karovka Paleti na niebo.

Bog dat tibie hleba.”

[336]

”La galina d' San Michel Buta j ale e vola al ciel.”

[337] Sacred, no doubt, to St Lucia. In the Tyrol, according to the _Festliche Jahr_ of Baron Reinsberg, St Lucia gives presents to girls, and St Nicholas to boys. The feast of St Lucia is celebrated on the 15th of September; that evening no one need stay up late, for whoever works that night finds all the work undone in the morning. The night of St Lucia is greatly feared (the saint loses her sight; the summer, the warm sunny season, comes to an end; the Madonna moon disappears, and then becomes queen of the sky, the guardian of light, as St Lucia), and conjurings are made against nightmare, devils, and witches. A cross is put into the bed that no witch may enter into it.

That night, those who are under the influence of fate see, after eleven o'clock, upon the roofs of houses a light moving slowly and a.s.suming different aspects; prognostications of good or evil are taken from this light, which is called _Luzieschein_.

[338]

”Santu Nicola, Santu Nicola Facitimi asciari ossa e chiova.”

(St Nicholas, St Nicholas, Make me find bone and coin.)

[339] Cfr. Menzel, _Die Vorchristliche Unsterblichkeits-Lehre_.

[340] Cfr. Rochholtz, _Deutscher Glaube und Brauch_.

[341] Kuhn und Schwartz, _N. d. S. M. u. G._, p. 377.

[342] In another Tuscan variety, the song begins--

”Lucciola, Lucciola, ba.s.sa, ba.s.sa, Ti dar una matera.s.sa,” &c.